Back from the Holidays, but we're full speed ahead with storage crops and delicious detox veggies like kale and carrots!

This week we're thrilled to offer the humble Hubbard. This squash is delicate in flavor and sweetness but packs a great amount of nutrients as well as a super smooth texture. We made a great soup out of one and have lazily found with another that just baking it and eating it without anything on it is amazing too! Hubbard squash are typically the largest squash variety around, but these little guys (while still being pretty big) are considered 'mini.'

Member's also received two huge acorn squash, a large bunch of carrots, a bag of storage onions, a huge bag of green curling kale and a bunch of sage.

Click 'Read More' below to see our weekly email to members as well as recipes for hubbard squash and kale chips...

Welcome back! We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

This week's share:

Baked Kale Chips

We have already explored the world of kale chips in past emails, but this recipe is more straight forward. Kale chips can apparently even be ground up and sprinkled onto foods like popcorn for a healthy boost of seasoning.

Ingredients:

1 bunch of dinosaur kale

1 Tbs olive oil

sea salt to taste

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Rinse and dry kale thoroughly, remove stems and tough center ribs. Cut kale into large pieces, toss with olive oil then sprinkle with sea salt. Arrange pieces in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Bake for 20 minutes, or until crisp. Let cool and EAT!

Hubbard Squash

Hubbard Squash is typically the largest winter squash you'll find in the market and It's skin is often blue or tan. The squash you'll receive today are a mini variety of Hubbard that are orange with orange flesh and a pumpkin taste that sweetens with age. They are great as a substitute for winter squash in recipes, baked, and made into soup. Enjoy your very interesting and olde world looking Hubbard beauty!

Tips for opening your squash from finecooking.com: It helps to soften the skin by pricking the squash several times with a fork and microwaving it for 3 minutes (or bake it directly on the rack in the oven at 350ºF for about 10 minutes. To get to the flesh inside, set the squash on a towel on a cutting board to prevent it from slipping, and push the tip of a sharp chef?s knife into the squash near the stem. Carefully push the knife through the squash to the cutting board to cut off the stem. Then cut lengthwise through half of the squash, starting with the tip of your knife in the center of the squash. (If the knife sticks, don?t try to pull it out; this is dangerous, since it may come out suddenly. Instead, tap the handle with a rubber mallet or meat tenderizer until the knife cuts through the squash.) Rotate the squash and cut through the other side the same way. Push the halves apart with your hands. With a soup spoon, scrape the seeds and stringy bits away from the flesh and discard.

Blue Hubbard Squash Risotto

Approx. 1 1/2 qt. chicken stock brought to a boil and kept hot

2 Tbs. Butter

2 Tbs. Olive oil

¼ C. Minced yellow onion

½ C. Arborio rice

1 C. Diced peeled Blue Hubbard squash

1 Tbs. Butter to finish

2 Tbs. Grated Parmesan cheese

Chopped herbs to finish

Toasted pine nuts to finish

1. Heat butter and oil in a wide, heavy pot over low heat. Sweat onions until soft. Add diced squash and Arborio rice and cook, stirring to coat the grains with butter, until opaque, 3 to 5 min.

2. Add 1/2 C. hot stock and stir until liquid is absorbed. Be careful to stir regularly so the risotto does not scorch.

3. Continue adding stock in this fashion until rice is cooked al dente. Risotto should be a little loose, not soupy.